[Equipment] My new machine

[mjbearit]

Well UPS came yesterday and dropped off my "new to me" PRS1 DS550 Auto. I thought "what the heck" and set it to take advantage of everything. I set it for Auto, AFlex - 2, I set a decent range, humidifier - 2, etc. I can now say I love this new technology! The Aflex took some getting used to, but man I took to that like a fish to water! I loved it! The only downside to my sleep last night was that the night prior I had slept in some bizarre contortionist's position and my shoulder/neck is killing me! Icy Hot helped but it kept waking me up last night!
Overall my numbers looked good, but one night does not any sort of a pattern make, so I am watching with guarded enthusiasm for now. It did show my AHI as a 1.5 so I guess that is good. And where I had set my pressure at 12 on my old CPAP it showed my 95% pressure at 11.5 so I think I was pretty darned close, especially since my old machine is in whole numbers only! I ended up with the range set to 10-16.5 just to try and start with a narrow range.
The items I really do not understand are the Average Total Leaks & 95% Total Leaks. I know there is a difference between the PR and Resmed machines, but I just frankly and not really solid on that concept and would appreciate it if someone could point me to a thread where this is spelled out in dummy terms for me! I really don't think my leaks are significant because I believe that I wake up every time I have a leak. It says mine are 29.43 and 36 respectively. I believe someone said that the PR measures complete leak, mask included and if that is so, how do I find out the leak rate on the mask from the exhalation port?
Oh and by the way, this machine is so darned quiet it was irritating! My old machine created a kind of white noise and helped block out the neighbors and house settling noises and such. This thing is literally silent, not quieter than my old one, silent! There were more than a couple times I ran my hand infront of the port last night because I couldn't hear the machine and the Aflex makes it breathe with you....freaky! But in a really good way!

[SuperSleeper]

Ah, good to hear, MJ...

Yeah it really is amazing to (not) hear these new ResMed S9's and the PR System One machines - they are very, very quiet, at least when you compare them to the older models.

Be sure to change your machine in your profile too and update your pressures once you've got them "zeroed in".

It did show my AHI as a 1.5 so I guess that is good.

Ain't no guessin' about it - an AHI of 1.5 is REALLY good.

[mjbearit]

Ah, good to hear, MJ...

Yeah it really is amazing to (not) hear these new ResMed S9's and the PR System One machines - they are very, very quiet, at least when you compare them to the older models.

Be sure to change your machine in your profile too and update your pressures once you've got them "zeroed in".

It did show my AHI as a 1.5 so I guess that is good.

Ain't no guessin' about it - an AHI of 1.5 is REALLY good.

While you were responding I was changing my info! It just took me a bit to remember how to do that!

[Sleepster]

The items I really do not understand are the Average Total Leaks & 95% Total Leaks. ... It says mine are 29.43 and 36 respectively.

Your mask is going to leak at a rate of about 30 liters per minute. This is the intentional leak, and it's what you feel coming out of the exhalation port. It varies according to your specific mask and your specific pressure setting. You have to look that up on the website of the mask manufacturer, or perhaps on the literature that came with your mask.

But, let's just say it's 30 L/min. Your average leak rate of 29.43 L/min means you are not leaking, on average, anymore than you're supposed to be leaking. But we have to be careful of statistics like the "average". As they say, you could have your feet in the oven, your head in the freezer, and on average you'd be fine!

So, looking a bit deeper we see that 95% of the time your leak rate is 36 L/min. This means you are 6 L/min over the intended amount. This is not a big deal as I think your CPAP machine can handle a leak rate of 30 L/min over and above the intentional leak rate, and still deliver effective therapy. Any more than that and your CPAP machine can't maintain the pressure required to keep your airway from collapsing. For the typical patient with OSA, this defeats the very purpose of the machine!

You might wonder what's happening the other 5% of the time. Look at the leak rate graph. Look for spikes that rise above 60 L/min or so, and see how long they last.

After wearing a chinstrap religiously for a few weeks, I've been able to keep mine below 40 L/min throughout the night, usually well below that, even without the chinstrap. The last time I quit using the chinstrap my leak rate went too high for moderate periods of time during the night, but it was only after I'd stopped wearing it for several weeks. It seems my chinstrap is a training device.

[mjbearit]

You have to look that up on the website of the mask manufacturer, or perhaps on the literature that came with your mask.

See here's the problem. I find the flow rate, but I can't find a chart for leak rate. I've tried looking, I've tried searching and it always comes back as "Sorry, your search....blah, blah" It's a Resmed Swift FX and Resmed has a tom of documentation, but I can't find that one piece! And I was looking under the clinician section, not the patient section which has almost nothing of value that I can find! If the flow rate is what I am looking for then it is somewhere between 30 and 40 (because I have a range rather than a set number). And the graph looks good to me, if I am reading it correctly it looks like I had one leak at about 11:30 (which woke me up and I fixed it) but it looks like this:

Dangit...I just realized this software is not a copy and past thing for pics. I'll have to figure this out and try again later!

[mjbearit]

Dangit...I just realized this software is not a copy and paste thing for pics. I'll have to figure this out and try again later!

Trying again!

   

Attempt #1

[mjbearit]

My hat's off to whoever wrote the instructions for attachments!

[Sleepster]

I find the flow rate, but I can't find a chart for leak rate.

At a pressure of 10 cm your intentional leak rate (vent flow rate) is about 33 L/min. At a pressure of 16 cm it's 43 L/min.

[Sleepster]

Trying again!
Attempt #1

I can see a spike in the leak rate at a time of about 23:25. I can't see the numbers on the leak rate axis, so I don't know how high it went.

But since your average leak rate is acceptable, and we see an otherwise level leak rate on your graph, we can safely conclude that you're in good shape. That one spike was probably due to the mask being taken off intentionally? Or perhaps by accident?

[Sleepster]

My hat's off to whoever wrote the instructions for attachments!

That would be our own PaulaO2. I don't know how she finds the time and patience to do all those things.